Night Skies
by PokeL
Summary: The girl's eyes lit up with excitement. She grabbed the boy's hand and pointed at the explosion as it was slowly fading into the black of the night sky. "Happy New Year, Paul!" Ikarishipping NYE Oneshot


_Boom._

The first light lit up the dark, a huge flower of red and green. The girl's eyes lit up with excitement. She grabbed the boy's hand and pointed at the explosion as it was slowly fading into the black of the night sky.

"Happy New Year, Paul!", she yelled out, then turned around and gave him a quick hug before her attention was drawn in by the next wave of firecrackers going off, each a different shape and color, each more beautiful than the one before it.

_Boom. Boom. Boom._

Dawn had always loved fireworks. Since she was a child she would beg her mom to let her stay up until midnight. When she was old enough, she would set alarms to get up in time. Her mom would get mad at her for not staying in bed, but then they ended up cuddling together into a big blanket and watch the New Years celebration with each other. This year was special though. This was the first year that her and Paul would spent the turn of the year together. The thought gave Dawn a warm feeling in the chest, despite the cold Sinnoh winter night.

_Boom._

Usually Dawn would spent the holiday season at home with her mom, given how little they saw each other because of her travels. Her grip around Paul's hand tightened ever so slightly.

"I'm so happy that you're here", she whispered, without her eyes letting go of the horizon. She didn't have to look at the purple haired man on her side to know that he was blushing. Of course he didn't reply. He wasn't one to get sentimental over New Years, or any holidays for that matter. Despite that, she knew that he was happy, too. The year had been tough on them. After she had finally come to terms with her feelings for him, their constant fighting and head butting had almost made them give up on each other again. They were both proud to a fault and she knew it as well as Paul did. She knew how hard it had been for him to suck up that pride and apologize to her, because she had been there, too. But ultimately, that sign of weakness had made her give them another chance. And now here they were. It wasn't like they weren't still getting into fights a lot. But they had gotten a lot better at being less.. hurtful, less unforgiving.

_Boom. BOOM._

Originally, Paul had wanted her to celebrate with her mother, like every other year. He was traveling for work, and wasn't able to be in Twinleaf Town that day. But she had insisted on spending New Years Eve with him instead. After all the time it had taken them to get to this point, she needed this. Dawn wanted to be close to him and most of all she wanted to share this special night with him.

_Boomboomboomboom.  
_

A shower of gold erupted around them and Dawn held her breath for a second. This was her favorite part. The finale, everybody firing their last firecrackers in short succession. When the sky turned almost as bright as day, before everything stopped and the night turned quiet again. That moment was something magical. Something she had tried to imitate in her contests multiple times.

_Pew._

The light was gone. Dawn held her breath for another second before her body relaxed and her eyes slowly started gazing down towards Paul, to find him staring at her with wonder. It was a rare expression from the stoic guy, and she felt her heart skip a beat. She loved this man. So much. It were these kinds of moments, when his walls came down and you could feel his honest appreciation and love which she had first fallen for. She was still not used to it. Paul shook his head, a tiny smile on his lips now.

"You know, the only other person I've ever seen this happy about fireworks was Reggie, when he was 10." She knew he was teasing her, but at that moment, she was too happy to care. It had been such a long journey. It felt like she might explode.

"Idiot", she said, placing her arms on his shoulders to pull his face towards hers. Paul was quite a bit taller than her, so she struggled a bit with the attempt, until finally he leaned in for a kiss. His breath made her face warm up, she could see the clouds forming from it because of the cold air.

"Happy New Year, Dawn.", he whispered in her ear as he finally pulled out of the kiss. This year would be theirs. She would make sure of that.

* * *

AN: Hello and welcome to the first piece I've written in 9 years! This was a Secret Santa piece for Rissychan on Discord and I'm very insecure about this haha. It's not a huge purposeful story but I hope y'all enjoy it. Happy New Year!


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